CRANSTON, R.I. — The city Democratic Party chairman, Michael J. Sepe, is calling on the City Council to hire an investigator to probe and publicly report on Police Department problems.

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Posted Jul. 9, 2014 @ 12:01 am

CRANSTON, R.I. — The city Democratic Party chairman, Michael J. Sepe, is calling on the City Council to hire an investigator to probe and publicly report on Police Department problems including the parking ticket scandal and personnel matters.

The state police have already investigated much of what Sepe is talking about, and as a result, a police captain is being prosecuted in a noncriminal disciplinary process for having orchestrated a mass issuance of parking tickets, allegedly for political revenge.

But the council and the public know very little about what occurred in “Ticketgate” and at least five police personnel disputes, some of which are the subject of litigation and could be costly for taxpayers, Sepe said in a statement. The state police orally briefed the council in private but did not make a written report.

The cases include claims for financial damages from the city by Capt. Todd Patalano and acting Capt. Karen E. Guilbeault, the case of former Sgt. Lydia Rivera, and unexplained months-long paid leaves of absence for another captain and a civilian secretary.

Mayor Allan W. Fung, a Republican, and members of the Democratic-majority council repeatedly have invoked city and state laws and regulations regarding personnel confidentiality for not having said more publicly about the ticket scandal and some of the personnel matters.

The investigator, who would be an outside lawyer, could finesse some of those obstacles by not naming names in a public report, Sepe said. The value of the insight to be delivered would be well worth the financial cost, he said.

The department has “gone wild,” and Fung’s oversight has been called into question by the political campaign donations that he has accepted from department members in recent years, Sepe charged.

Fung responded Tuesday that he is satisfied with the current operation of the department by the state police and by the thoroughness of the state police investigation. He said Sepe is politicizing the situation and, in effect, faulting the work of the state police.